Getting the hang of it!

Getting the hang of it!

Today, we meet the English expression“ to get the hang of”. If you“ get the hang of” something, it means that you have started to do it properly. You are not an expert yet, but you have understood the basic idea.

For example, imagine that you are learning to swim. You have never been swimming before. You are a complete beginner. The other people in your swimming class are complete beginners too.

The swimming instructor stands at the side of the swimming pool and shows you what to do. You have to reach forward with your arms, and kick your legs in the water. You try it. You splash wildly with your legs, and the poor swimming instructor gets very wet. A lot of water goes up your nose. But you do not move. You try again, and again. By the end of the swimming lesson, you can swim about2 meters without your feet touching the bottom of the swimming pool. “ Well done,” says the swimming instructor. “ You are getting the hang of it.” He means that are beginning to understand how to swim.

Kevin is learning to cook. Ever since he was a student, Kevin has lived off food which comes in tins or packets, plus takeaway pizzas, of course. Then he met Joanne, who is a good cook. But she is not willing to do all the cooking. She thinks that Kevin should do his share. So Kevin buys a cookery book, with beautiful pictures of delicious food. He sits in bed and reads it. The first day he cooks some chicken. However, the oven is too hot and the chicken is burnt. The second day, he makes some curry. The recipe said to add“ half a teaspoon“ of salt. Kevin misunderstood, and used half a tablespoon of salt. Then the rice stuck to the bottom of the pan, and the meal was inedible. But on the third day, things were better. Kevin made a chocolate cake, and it was really quite good. “ This is delicious”, said Joanne as she ate a third slice of cake. “ You are getting the hang of cooking. Perhaps you should cook every day.”

Joanne has a nephew. His name is Jack and he is three years old. He has learnt to talk, and indeed he talks all the time. But, like most other English three year olds, he does not understand about English irregular verbs. He thinks that you can talk about things in the past by adding“- ed” to the end of a verb– any verb! When Joanne went to visit her sister, her conversation with Jack went like this:

“ Hello Jack. What did you do today?”

“ I went to nursery.”

“ Oh, you went to nursery. And what did you do at nursery?”

“ We sang a song. Then we sat on the mat and the teacher read a story.”

“ I see. And what did you do after nursery?”

“ Me and mummy went to the shops. We bought some sweets.”

“ You bought some sweets. What happened to the sweets, Jack?”

“ I ate them.”

As you can see, Jack has not got the hang of irregular verbs. English would of course be much easier if we all spoke like Jack, but unfortunately English has lots of irregular verbs, and you( and Jack) just have to learn them. Have you got the hang of irregular verbs? There is a quiz on the website where you can test your skills.